November 19, 2007

Original Eight Steps to Success

Supernova originated with The Eight Steps to Success. During the early 90's Merrill Lynch was in the midst of a major focus on asset gathering and it was working. I sat with Jon Spafford in Indianapolis,IN talking about a creative strategy that was revolutionary at the time. He called it Automate, Elevate and Annuitize. As he explained his plan, the firms strategy became clear and doable. He believed heartily in asset gathering, but he knew it had a downside risk. Too many accounts and a reduction in service. His strategy seemed to solve the problem. What was this strategy? Automate= use of technology to assist the Financial Advisors to automate their contact process. All customer contact for Jon became appointments, even the phone calls. He called the phone appointments AT&Ters. He had regularly scheduled appointments with every client every quarter. Ten years later this is more relevant than ever. As your clients time and attention have become shorter, playing phone tag seems even crazier. Arrange all important calls as AT&Ters. Respect your clients and their time and make your life simpler. Be like other professionals and do all important work by appointment.